WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor (FL-14) released the following statement on the Biden-Harris Administration’s actions to safeguard children’s privacy, health and safety from online harms.

“The staggering statistics detailing the poor state of children’s mental health require significant action in Congress, including my Kids PRIVACY Act and an age-appropriate design code to protect kids online,” said Rep. Castor. “Today’s actions by the Biden-Harris Administration are a welcomed step in the right direction. Congress must now come together to support these actions by passing laws to strengthen and expand privacy protections for children and teenagers.”

The Biden-Harris Administration’s actions include:

• Creating an interagency Task Force on Kids Online Health and Safety led by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Commerce.
• Directing the Department of Education to take action to enhance the privacy of minor students’ data and encourage local policies that improve digital health, safety and academic outcomes.
• Directing the Department of Commerce to improve awareness of services and support for youth victims of online harassment and abuse.
• Directing the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice to work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to detect and investigate offenses involving child sexual abuse material and to improve the identification of victims.
• Supporting NCMEC’s Take It Down platform that helps empower young people to remove or stop the sharing of private images and videos taken before the age of 18.

Rep. Castor is a leading voice in the Congress for strengthening and expanding protections for kids online. Last month, Castor reintroduced her Protecting the Information of our Vulnerable Adolescents, Children and Youth Act, or the Kids PRIVACY Act, which updates the Children’s Online Privacy Protect Act (COPPA) with safeguards to keep children and teenagers safe online and hold Big Tech companies who surveil and target children accountable. The number of House co-sponsors is growing every week.  The bill includes strong provisions to build on COPPA's strengths and expand privacy protections for children and teenagers, as well as requiring Big Tech to make the best interests of children and teenagers a primary design consideration.

The Kids PRIVACY Act is supported by: Fairplay, Common Sense Media, Center for Digital Democracy, Network for Public Education, Media Alliance, Dr. Ellen Wartella, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, Professor of Communication at Northwestern University, XR Safety Initiative, Woodrow Hartzog, Professor, of Law Boston University School of Law, Parent’s Television and Media Council, Consumer Federation of America, American Psychological Association, Stop Predatory Gambling & Campaign for Gambling-Free Kids, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Serge Egelman, Research Director of the Usable Security & Privacy Group at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) at University of California, Berkeley, Parent Coalition for Student Privacy, Accountable Tech, American Academy of Pediatrics, Electronic Privacy Information Center, the American Association of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and The Eating Disorders Coalition for Research, Policy, & Action.